Tomato Soup - dairy/wheat free

This soup turned out really nicely! I'd recommend to double the ingredients to make bigger soup

1 onion, peeled and finely chopped
2-3 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely chopped
a handful of fresh basil leaves picked
olive oil
1kg of tomatoes (as ripe as possible)

• Put your onion, garlic and basil into a large pot with a couple of lugs of olive oil
• Cover the pan, and simmer gently without colouring for 20 minutes, stirring every now and then. 
• While the veg are simmering, drop the tomatoes into boiling water for 30 seconds, then remove the skin. 

Add these to the veg and let simmer for a further 20 minutes with the lid on, press the tomatoes gently so they break. 

Purée the soup using a food processor, but be careful as it is very hot

 Once you've puréed the soup, put it back into the pan, bring it back to a simmer, and season very carefully with chopped basil leave, salt and black pepper.

Chestnut and Mushroom burgers

2 garlic cloves
1 large onion
butter
200g mushrooms
200g cooked/peeled whole chestnuts (available in Waitrose, Porter Foods Organic whole chestnuts)
fresh thyme
salt and pepper

• Melt the butter and add onion and cook until lightly brown
• Add garlic and thyme and simmer for 5mins
• Chop the mushrooms and half of the chestnuts  - safe the other half

• Add to the pan, simmer till the mushrooms are cooked, season to taste
• Place half of the mixture from pan into a bowl
• Spoon the remaining into a food processor and add the rest of the chestnuts and one egg
• Mix to make a stiff paste (can have small bits in it)
• Combine both of the mixtures and with washed wet hands shape into approx 10 flat burgers
• Grill on medium heat for 10minutes 

Served with veggie mash, boiled mini carrots and rocket

Salmon Side

When you buy a 1kg salmon side, instead of cooking it in the oven, you can split it into two and grill it.
Just slice the other side in to 4 slides, season with sea salt and pepper and grill on very hot pan
You could grill all of the slides (whole 1kg) in one go but that takes more time and it tastes much better when done just before eating.

Served with boiled broccoli/cauliflower and saute green peas/onion seasoned with pepper and oil

Served with veggie mash (sweet potato/turnip) and tomato/capers/avocado salad

Roasted Chicken

Super easy, just ensure you put it into the oven when you get home as it will take around 2hrs to be ready.
Buy a chicken that's already been cleaned and tied, again saves time.

Season the inner cavity of the chicken with 6 peeled garlics and 4 chillies, if you have herbs like thyme or basil, chop them a little and add in too.

• Season the chicken with salt, black pepper, white pepper and paprika powder.
• Rub olive oil onto the chicken skin.
• Season again with salt

Placed in in a roasting pan ( I tend to cover the pan with mixture baking paper/foil, to save time on washing it)

190C for 45mins per kilo and additional 30minutes

Lamb chops

Easy Sunday night dinner - and soooo good!

    2 large garlic cloves, crushed
    Coarse sea salt
    Black Pepper
    extra-virgin olive oil
    Lamb chops, about 3/4-inch thick

We prepared a garlic oil separately and kept it separate, it was place onto the table in a small bowl, it's magic liquid, so yummy with lamb chops, but when adding it as a table seasoning don't over do it, you don't need to add much into your chop.

1. Chopped garlic and olive oil -- mix! that's it! Ensure you have enough oil so its' not just pure garlic.
2. Take the chops out of the fridge at least 1 hour before cooking
3. Heat a grill pan over high heat until almost smoking, add the chops, season with salt and black pepper. Flip the chops over  and season from the other side. Continue cooking for another 4 minutes for medium-rare and 5minutes for medium.

The grill pan we bought few months ago has been absolutely amazing, it is quite wide but once you get it heated you can cook large items like fish fillets on it or several chops like we just did. Buy one that is non-stick and fairly light to handle.

 Served with veggie mash (turnips/sweetpotato) and some saute onion/mushrooms seasoned with salt/pepper

Kale frittata -a good whole life challenge breakfast

Kale frittata, good alternative breakfast
Did again frittata from kale and eggs, no other seasoning that salt.
Recipe here: 
Kale is s a form of cabbage and its considered to be closer to wild cabbage than most domesticated forms.

Served with yummy, mango/strawberry/banana smoothie, other one topped with raisins/chia seeds and other with raisins/chia seeds/pumpkin seeds/almonds

Roasted pork joint lasts for several days when served as breakfast. As it is eaten in small quantities its so worth of investing on a good quality joint!

Pan-Fried Hake fillets, squid and veggies

Easy Friday meal

Pan-Fried Hake fillets
Salt/Pepper/Dill and Olive Oil
Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan and add the seasoned hake fillets, skin side down.
Fry the hakes for five minutes on each side, or until golden brown and cooked through. A
Sprinkle some fresh dill to garnish
(Tip: As you don't use these kind of herbs every day, buy a bigger bunch, chop it and froze it in a freezer bag on the day of the purchase. You can then add the herb to your dishes. As its chopped you don't need to defrost if you will add it too cooking. If you want to add it to ready meals like this time just take it out from the freezer at the beginning of the cooking and its defrosted when you're about to serve the meal)

Squid with garlic and onions
This is the simplest way to serve squid. It’s great as a starter but it can be served as a small side dish too (like we did)

• 300 gms squid cleaned (you can ask your squid to be cut into rings already too)
• 3 chopped garlic
• Small bunch of Fresh coriander (we did not have this time so used parsley)
• Salt and pepper to taste

Sautee garlic and onion, add seasoned squid rings a until fully cooked


Served with greens and boiled cauliflower and tomato/rocket salad